In the opening scene, Soleil (Charlotte Bydwell) makes a comment to Joan (Lucy Liu) about resorting to watching The Creature From the Black Lagoon because her "favorite tv show was preempted by hockey."
This is in reference to Elementary commonly having having their time slot pushed back due to regionally televised NHL games in the US.
Lucy Lui and James Hong previously appeared together in the X-Files episode 'Hell Money'.